Time to Wake the Odd Man of Asia

Japan has 45 new high-energy, low-emission (HELE) coal-fired power plants on the drawing boards. These will probably burn high quality Australian coal. And despite the tsunami that hit Japan, nuclear power still generates about 20% of Japan’s electricity.

Chinese companies have plans to build 700 new coal power plants all over the world, mostly in China. In addition China will bring five new nuclear power reactors online in 2018 and has plans for a further six to eight units.

India generates more than 65% of its electricity from thermal power plants, and about 85% of these plants are coal-fired. India’s state-run power utility plans to invest $10 billion in new coal-fired power stations over the next five years and its thermal coal imports rose by more than 15% in the first three months of 2018. India also has 22 nuclear reactors in operation at seven sites, and 11 more reactors are under construction.

The Isogo Power Plant in Japan. Repowered with new technology. Isogo ranks as the cleanest coal-fired pow­er plant in the world in terms of emissions intensity, with levels comparable to those from a natural gas–fired combined-cycle plant. Courtesy: J-POWER

World-wide about 1,600 new coal-fired power plants are planned or under construction in 62 countries. Many of these power plants will utilise HELE technology.

Power plants burning low-energy lignite are being closed in Australia but still being built elsewhere. There are 19 such facilities in various stages of approval, planning or construction in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Germany, Poland, Romania and Slovenia.

Australia is the odd man of Asia. We march to the green drum.

Despite having huge resources of coal and uranium, Australia has no nuclear powered electricity and has not built a significant coal-fired power station since Kogan Creek was opened eleven years ago. Over the last eight years Australia has closed nine coal power stations (in acts of political vandalism, some were quickly demolished to prevent them being upgraded and reopened). AGL, a green energy company, bought the huge Liddell Coal Power station from the state government for nothing in 2014 and seems determined to close it, despite an offer of $250M to buy and operate it (closure of Liddell will increase profits for AGL’s green energy business).

The close-the-gate-crowd opposes every proposal to frack for oil or gas, and elections are swung by fevered rhetoric opposing new coal mines. The PM of Australia thinks we can generate extra power by using electricity to pump water up hill and get some of that electricity back later by letting it run back down. Not surprisingly, Australia’s national energy market is run, not by an engineer, but by a lawyer/climate change activist.

The green state of Tasmania relies on hydro-power and diesel generators when its plug-in mainland power cable fails and the green state of South Australian has closed and joyfully demolished both of its coal-fired power stations. After recent blackouts it spent at least $100M on a huge battery that produces zero new electricity (it has to be charged when the wind blows and the sun shines, and it hopefully fills the supply gaps when they don’t).

But Australia is building lots of mills and mirrors collecting low-density energy from intermittent, un-predictable and un-reliable sources such as wind and solar. While Greens on the ground do everything to stop Queensland’s huge Carmichael coal mine from ever opening, their mates in the Queensland government gleefully reported 23 large-scale renewable generation projects in the pipeline, including 13 in Queensland.

Australian heavy industries like refining, processing and manufacturing cannot rely on intermittent, unreliable, unpredictable, expensive green power so they will keep migrating in search of cheap reliable power. The associated skilled jobs will keep disappearing with them. Australia will revert to its colonial economy which relied on exports of raw materials from its mines, farms and forests. But this “New Economy” will have the extra burden of a vast bureaucracy, a large and growing welfare state and an aging population.

Tomorrow’s Aussie kids will see their future is Asia – the old people left behind will get work as bureaucrats and nurses, or as child minders, tour guides and educators for rich Asian tourists and immigrants.

However, as Australian Aborigines discovered over 200 years ago, the world will not allow us to monopolise forever a continent rich in valuable undeveloped resources in land, water, minerals, hydrocarbons, radioactives, timber and sea food. Hard heads and sharp eyes are looking us over.

Wake up Australia. Burning coal does not control climate and carbon dioxide is the gas of life, NOT a pollutant. It’s time to turn the lights back on

A sensible change requires particular generation elements to be phased out strategically, whilst other existing sources are also phased out or phased for pollution capture upgrades. CO2 not one of them. Mahahlo for the plant food.

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May 15, 2018 11:22 pm

philsalmon

I’ve noticed a slightly surreal trend on most WUWT posts. The first post is always incomprehensible and unrelated to the subject of the post. Probably generated automatically by a bot.

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May 16, 2018 1:46 pm

Warren Blair

Not going to happen.
The domestic (household) market in Australia is now so profitable for the energy cartel it has no interest in supplying manufacturers.
Our energy-intensive industries are moving to China where they can consume cheap Australian coal and gas energy without the economic pain of operating in Australia.
No new-venture business considers Australia a viable manufacturing location.
Best picks now are China, USA (except Cal), Canada and India.
Australia used to be on this list.

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May 15, 2018 11:37 pm

wws

Yes, the “odd” man of asia is a poor description. More like the foolish, about to go broke, and completely out of touch with physical reality man of asia.

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May 16, 2018 4:54 am

Keen Observer

Canada? Nope. Our “honourable” PM is doing his level best to ensure no new investment ever comes here ever again, especially in manufacturing or energy. Unless it’s from China, because they’re swell guys.

Eventually all this madness will change but it might take several generations. Of course if they let it go too far “down”, Australia will simply be re-colonized and re-industrialized by new people from the outside. The old history will serve as a warning of what not to do.

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May 16, 2018 8:16 am

WXcycles

The Commonwealth of Australia as a constituted legal and political system is a decrepit joke fit only for the mid of last century. The entire system needs to be plowed-in, a completely different system is required.
I’m quite sure that will NOT occur.
Instead Australia will limp along patheticaly, putting a brave face on being a laughably corrupt impoverished greenie-wannabe-commie state, with its rediculous parliamentry facades and charades, until it has no effective control of anything much (even as it relentlessly builds State security forces, control laws and unceasing glib internationalism as a demonstration of extraordinary progress), then the uncontrolable internal and external factors will determine Australia’s whole future dynamic (not just its pitiful excuses for holistic energy policies).
The spectacularly ignorant and oblivious generation, who have never known a world without being ‘online’ will have to live with the astonishing mess that they’ve avidly supported creating.
What could possibly be more fair and just than that?

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May 17, 2018 6:35 pm

Felix

WX,
Probably true, but sad. It just keeps getting worse.
The only hope is that at some point things will get so bad that the people will wake up and throw off their Commie commissars.
An abortive attempt at that failed, but in a Deep State coup, the free man Tony Abbott was tossed for a Swamp Creature.

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May 17, 2018 6:47 pm

WXcycles

You know Felix, your attitude displayed down through this page is disgusting, you are just the sort of Ametican neo-imperial ideologue we can do without interferring in any part of our now dysfunctional state. It got that way via following the same abject extremist american fluff that you vigorously espouse.
And what’s amazing is you’re so oblivious to just how desasterous your world view is, when codified. Or maybe you do know and are just someone who generally hates Australia. Frankly that appears much more likely.
Whatever, I don’t trust you, nor anyone like you. Our country should stop listening to people from the US, who have your sort of arrogant unfriendly attitude and intent, if not ban you from having more than a tourist visa, so you lot can’t undermine our country further.

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May 17, 2018 8:44 pm

Felix

WXcycles May 17, 2018 at 8:44 pm
As always, you couldn’t possibly be more wrong. It’s uncanny how wrong you always are.
My mom was Australian. She met my dad during the war.
So I don’t need a tourist visa to visit Australia.
I love Australians as they were. I’m deeply saddened at how depraved and debased you’ve become. The best have gotten out of the declining country and moved here, like most of my cousins. Here they can be free, as Australians used to be.
Those who are haven’t gotten out in search of freedom deserve what you get.
Just what that I’ve said is not true?
Without the US, nothing can stop China from taking over Australia. Yet, you’re perfectly typical of current Australians, who resent the fact that but for us, you’d all be slaves and comfort women of the Japanese Empire, as the Koreans were before we liberated them.

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May 17, 2018 9:04 pm

WXcycles

Our main mistake was thinking American business and govt was more than crooks and cut throats, seeking not just a fair profit, but to impart systemic harm.
If you’re claiming to be ‘Australian’ you’re clearly a traitor. Frankly, it sounds like you have very little direct experience of Australia, if any, and no allegence to it or consideration for it, whatsoever. Your sentiments paint you as a provocateur, more like an enemy.
Capt Americas’ like you better get something clear, the words being voiced down the page, by many, are coming not from the left, or from the centre, it is coming from actual Conservatives. They’re all fairly consistently pointing-out what a regretable experience it’s been to invite treacherous american agendas freely into all aspects of our society, and its devious proponents.
When a wolf in sheep’s clothing rips you, you always see it as it really is, not how it was pretending to be. As the saying goes, when you sup with the Devil, you have to use a very long straw.
We just let you lot in, and treated you like you were us. But you actually despise us, as is abundantly clear from your rediculous comments.

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May 17, 2018 11:24 pm

Felix

WXcycles May 17, 2018 at 11:24 pm
As a descendant of real Australians, I do despise what has become of my mother’s once free and proud people. My experience of Australia is based upon knowledge of her kith and kin in the last century, not of the debased slaves of a statist regime of this sad century.
My uncle died on the Kokoda Track. My grandfather fought at Gallipoli and Pozières. My mom’s ancestors arrived on the First Fleet and subsequent convict convoys. So by blood, I’m a better Australian than you, as also by my willingness to fight for freedom. Now degenerate, self-hating young Australians want to do away with Anzac Day.
I was honored to serve with Australian and New Zealand forces in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, but the whole ethos of those countries has altered beyond all recognition in recent decades. It’s precisely because I know Australia well that I’m so dismissive of its current “leadership”, which reflects the debased electorate. Thank God my closest kin have escaped to the land of freedom, imperiled though America is by the same baleful statist forces.
The pusillanimous pussy Poms of today aren’t worthy to lick the boots of their proud, independent forbears. Wake up or end up the slaves not only of your indigenous Communist regime but of alien Chinese Communists. Take arms, as did your noble ancestors!

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May 17, 2018 11:39 pm

WXcycles

Felix
“… debased slaves of a statist regime of this sad century. … . Take arms, as did your noble ancestors! ”
—–
Oh, I see, you’re a radical libertarian provocateur with anachist leanings invoking armed insurrection against the govts of Australia.
Hence why you can’t bear to even read that privatisation of essential services has been a total desaster in Australia.
No, you’re not going to bait me into some dumb spiral ‘debate’ on the unsustainable stupidity of your preferred radical extremist politics, namely, of armed revolution against a State’s military.
Now I see more fully what you are, a ranting militant kook, pushing a radical political agenda, and inciting armed conflict.
Felix, hate to break it to you, but you’re a loser.

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May 18, 2018 12:22 am

Felix

WX,
Who died and made you God, to determine winners and losers.
I’m just crying in the wilderness. Only time will tell whether I’m a prophet or a loser.
Should Australia survive as an independent nation or sink to colonial status won’t be decided by Australians but by Chinese, American and Indian actors. You’ve become nothing but pawns, since losing your manhood.

“The green state of Tasmania relies on hydro-power … “. True, but don’t think for a moment that the Tasmanian Greens ever supported it.

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May 15, 2018 11:38 pm

Komrade Kuma

Tasmania started down the Hydro road in about 1914 with the Lake Maragaret dam and power station and kept going until the Greens started up against Lake Pedder (unsuccessfully) and the Gordon Below Franklin project ( with good cause in my opinion) then finishing with some smaller projects on the west coast in the 90’s. Tasmania is the most mountainous state in Australia and has a large plateau at 1000 metres plus. Tasmania’s use of hydro has nothing to do with being green or anti coal or any other form of mania, it is solely about a rational choice based on rainfall and geography. Tasmania has twice the average rainfall of the mainland.

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May 16, 2018 2:22 am

Malcolm

A neat little fact that I like to share with people: Tasmania represents less than 1% of Australia’s land mass yet receives ~14% of the country’s rainfall. Hydro works well here.

We will just have to wait until the lights & heat in the homes goes out, & even then the greens will again blame wild westher, as they already did in sa.
Turnbull is a greeny, & bill shorton has made lots of green promises.
Just hope that he is telling porkies to get elected.
Mje

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May 16, 2018 12:26 am

Interested Observer

Bill Shorten is ALWAYS telling porkies to get elected. He can’t even say his name without sounding like he’s lying. “My name is …uh…um…Bill Shorten. Yep, that’s it.”
Remember, this is the guy who knifed two sitting Prime Ministers in the back to get to where he is. I wouldn’t trust a thing coming out of that guy’s mouth.

Swamp Creatures from the Deep State of Oz will strike back should his party ever dare to elevate him again. The Swamp Creatures of Oz are if anything even more slimy and reptilian than in DC, as Salties are to alligators.

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May 17, 2018 7:09 pm

Henning Nielsen

Australia will follow this madness for as long as she can afford it. After that, James Hansen will weep.

Its going to get worse before it gets better Viv, Australia is run by its current shower of politicians because they are who the people of their own free will chose to lead them.

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May 16, 2018 12:41 am

ironicman

Australia has compulsory voting, so on a matter of principle I have been voting ‘Informally’ for years because the majors have been brainwashed into thinking CO2 causes global warming.
Socialism with Australian characteristics, a pox on both their houses.

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May 16, 2018 1:53 am

Bob Burban

Attendance at a polling booth or the lodgment of a postal ballot paper is mandatory in Australia, but voting is not: a voter can write anything or nothing on the ballot paper.

It’s drifting toward Asia.
The Indian Plate used to be part of the Australian Plate, but its collision with the Eurasian Plate, lifting up the Himalayas, apparently caused it to split off from the Indian-Australian Plate some three million years ago.

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May 16, 2018 1:55 pm

Felix

And GPS data show that a minor plate, the Sunda, lies between the Eurasian and Australian Plates.

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May 16, 2018 2:04 pm

WXcycles

Is Papua New Guinea in South East Asia?
Yup.
Papua is visible with the naked eye from Australian territory.
During glacials Papua becomes an extension of Australia, because it’s all the Australian continental crustal plate.
If we were in a glacial maximum the South East Asian littoral would be mostly absent, just dry land, so there would be no question that Australia’s part of South East Asia.
Saying Australia is not a part of SEA is like saying Ireland or Sicily are not part of Europe—not so.

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May 17, 2018 7:05 pm

Felix

Actually, New Guinea is part of the continent of Australia, not SE Asia.
If you’re speaking economically, possibly. But geologically, no.
New Guinea, like Australia and New Zealand, was attached to Antarctica until the last stages of the breakup of Pangaea.http://www.scotese.com/newpage9.htm
Deep oceanic channels didn’t open up between Oz and Antarctica until the Oligocene, creating the Southern Ocean and starting ice sheet build up on the isolated polar continent.

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May 17, 2018 7:13 pm

Tom Halla

It’s a boundary question. Is North and South America one or two continents? Are Europe, Africa, and Asia all one continent, as there are land connections? There are straits separating Indonesia from New Guinea, and a straight separating New Guinea from Australia.

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May 17, 2018 7:41 pm

WXcycles

Felix on May 17, 2018 at 7:13 pm
“Actually, New Guinea is part of the continent of Australia, not SE Asia. If you’re speaking economically, possibly. But geologically, no.”
—-
Felix, plug in a reading comprehensin app, this is what a wrote, verbatim:
“… During glacials Papua becomes an extension of Australia, because it’s all the Australian continental crustal plate. …”
Duh!
You’re talking to an aust-geo, btw, your one-eyed yank arrogance and condescending attitude seems rather boundless.

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May 17, 2018 8:55 pm

Felix

WXcycles May 17, 2018 at 8:55 pm
I know you recognizes tectonic reality. But you’re wrong that Australia is part of SE Asia in any meaningful sense.
Your soft white wheat isn’t bought by SE Asia, but by India and Pakistan. Neither does your mineral wealth, so coveted by China, go to SE Asia, but to China and beyond.
Your main connection to SE Asia is sex tourists from Oz going to Bali and Thailand.

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May 17, 2018 9:06 pm

ironicman

Because the majors are singing from the same songbook, with the Klimatariat and MSM cheering them on, it has all the qualities of a dictatorship.
There is one glimmer of hope, the Coalition ginger group has given the leader six months to throw off his green cloak and start building coal fired plants or be toppled.
The government said they will phase out subsidies for renewables by 2020, too little too late, a lukewarm response by mindless politicians.
At the moment we are being burdened by Beijing’s solar panels, but they will be more than happy to tender for a state of the art Hele or nuclear power station when the Australians get their act together.

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May 16, 2018 12:43 am

HotScot

Perhaps the only glimmer of hope for Aus is that as they are in the vanguard of industrial and commercial suicide, they might be the first to emerge when things go tits up.
A long shot, I know, but at least it’s something.
Good luck Aus. We’re all as helpless as you are, but we are watching.

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May 16, 2018 1:24 am

ironicman

Beijing will make sure we don’t collapse, have you heard of the Belt and Road?

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May 16, 2018 1:46 am

HotScot

Heard of it. Not looked 8nto it though. Chinese commercial trade rout as far as I can gather.

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May 16, 2018 2:02 am

ironicman

Its capitalism with a human face.

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May 16, 2018 5:49 am

MarkW

Capitalism already has a human face.

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May 16, 2018 7:39 am

mike

China will love a collapse and be only too happy to pick up loose pieces…

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May 16, 2018 3:43 pm

Felix

China’s longterm plan involves doing a Tibet on Australia, occupying and colonizing it.
With its other Asian colonies and those in Africa, it will then be ready for the World Island Ragnarok Armageddon against India.

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May 16, 2018 5:39 pm

Felix

Granted, at present China has only two aircraft carriers, but its leaders are patient. China could succeed where Japan failed, thanks to the USA.

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May 16, 2018 5:41 pm

Felix

Would native Australians accept Hong Kong status, or fight back against 30 million Chinese settlers?

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May 16, 2018 5:48 pm

Felix

All those excess males born under the just-ended one child regime need women.

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May 16, 2018 5:53 pm

Felix

Who better than blonde giantesses from Oz to produce the next generation of PLA soldiers to conquer the world?

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May 16, 2018 5:57 pm

Felix

In a Second Battle of the Coral Sea, the RAN would quickly be destroyed, leaving Oz defenseless against invasion and colonization.
Followed of course by New Zealand, which might come to regret its opposition to nuclear weapons.

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May 16, 2018 6:10 pm

Felix

If and when China overruns Australia as it has Uighuristan, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Tibet and other “Inner Barbarian” nations, to where will the Outer Barbarian Australians who don’t want to join the Han Borg flee?

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May 16, 2018 8:34 pm

ironicman

Comrade Felix, you may be unaware that Australia spends $20 billion a year on defence to prevent our biggest trading partner taking Australia by force.
Much amusement.
The most likely outcome is that Beijing will export their economic revolution around the world, a benevolent dictatorship comes in peace with bags of money.
The American Alliance is becoming irrelevant.

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May 16, 2018 8:55 pm

toorightmate

Felix,
Don’t under estimate NZ. They now have a leader with a lot of bite.

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May 16, 2018 9:00 pm

Felix

Ironicman,
Oz has less than no chance against China without US support. Far from being irrelevant, your only option without us is abject surrender.
China’s declared budget is less than $200 billion dollars, but that’s a preposterous lie. Besides which, its personnel costs are almost nonexistent, since most of its three million strong active force is drafted.
You seriously need to get real if you imagine that Oz on its own could resist even the PLA and PLAN for a week, let alone win.
But, hey, fine with me. I’m happy leaving our erstwhile allies to the fate they so richly deserve, due to their neglecting their defenses. Oz is as bad an any NATO country in this regard.
I do like what you’ve done with the Steyr AUG however.

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May 17, 2018 12:03 am

Felix

Besides which, Oz relies on the US to sell it the military hardware with which to defend itself.
If America be irrelevant, then you can buy your means of defense from India.

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May 17, 2018 12:07 am

ironicman

‘…. your only option without us is abject surrender.’
They have no ambition to subjugate Australia, so you are way off the mark.
Beijing sees us as a quarry, food bowl and tourist resort. They are amused by our democracy, but have no intention of interfering.
The Coalition front bench take their orders from Washington on strategic matters and we have been designated as deputy sheriff in the Pacific. This is complete madness.

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May 17, 2018 1:08 am

ironicman

‘If America be irrelevant, then you can buy your means of defense from India.’
Our subs are French design, but the new fighter jet is definitely yours and I reckon the Chinese could do a duplicate for half the price.

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May 17, 2018 1:12 am

Felix

ironicman May 17, 2018 at 1:08 am
China most certainly does have plans to occupy Australia, after gaining control of the South China Sea, which it’s in the process of so doing.
Its intent was revealed by a Soviet defector in the 1970s. Yet your government has disarmed the populace and gutted the armed forces. The US is unconquerable by invasion, thanks to its 300 million or more firearms in private hands.
You are enjoying a bit of a military build up right now, but it’s far too little and probably too late.
Of course you have to buy European subs. The US only makes nukes, not diesel electric boats.
Chinese versions of US a/c aiframes would indeed cost less, given much lower labor costs, but our software hasn’t yet been stolen by them. And our missiles are also better.
Sorry, but there’s no way that your tiny armed forces would stand a chance against six million Chinese soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. The Oz army contains ~30K active, ~15K part-time reserves and some 12.5K standby reserves. So you are outnumbered by more than ten to one.
China might take Singapore or Brunei and parts of Papua NG before attacking Oz, however, giving you time to beef up your defenses. By arming every person of military age physically, mentally and morally able to bear arms, you might have a chance. But you’ll need millions more weapons, anti-gas suits, armored vehicles, aircraft, etc than you can probably afford.
I’ll grant that mountainous NZ might be a hard nut to crack.
Failing all else, China can just nuke you, although that would risk killing many of those nubile wombs the ChiCom regime needs if it’s to take over the world. Killing males wouldn’t bother them, except for fewer slaves to work the mines.
The present regime regrets the one baby per couple period. It could now use those hundreds of millions of aborted fetuses, predominantly female. But now it can afford to risk its excess males.

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May 17, 2018 12:23 pm

Felix

Sorry. Meant outnumbered 100 to one.
But for the initial, airborne invasion wave, ten to one would be more like it. Most Chinese troops would land from ships, but by borrowing Russian aircraft (and probably troops), China could drop and air land about 100K paras in the first wave and 500K more over the following five days. After seizing all major airports and military airfields, the paras and commandos would fan out to occupy ports to receive the millions in the occupying force.

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May 17, 2018 12:29 pm

Felix

If China used its thousands of airliners with the range to reach Australia, it could bring in close to 600,000 troops on the first day alone.
But first Australia’s meager air defenses would have to be suppressed. Non-persistent gas could clear out any lurking Oz soldiers with MANPADS shoulder-fired SAMs.

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May 17, 2018 1:07 pm

Felix

It appears I’ve been scooped, right down to rescue by the US and India:https://www.amazon.com/Winter-Kill-China-Invades-Australia/dp/0987864564
Britain might join in, too, which would be mostly a symbolic gesture. Japan probably couldn’t risk reducing its own defenses to help Oz. Pretty sure that Indonesia would sit it out, too. Malaysia would probably already be occupied.
I’d advise Australia and NZ to join NATO. That would mean having to accept nuclear ships and maybe warheads, but what’s worse, slavery (at best) under ChiCom domination, or a few stray neutrons?

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May 17, 2018 1:17 pm

Felix

China has, among its over 40 active division-equivalent division and brigades, recently stood up two amphibious mechanized infantry divisions in its Eastern and Southern Theaters of Operation. One presently threatens Taiwan and the other Vietnam and other South China Sea opponents.
But they’d come in handy in invading farther south.
The PLA Navy also has a division-equivalent of marines in the Southern Theater of Operation.
The Australian Army has a single armored battalion, with 59 US Abrams tanks. China’s tanks aren’t as good, but there are about 8000 of them in the active forces. It might use just its 3000 most modern tanks against Oz. If China invaded with thirty of its 40 division-equivalents, that would be one tank brigade per division, or alternatively, ten armored divisions if all were grouped together rather than parceled out as infantry support weapons.

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May 17, 2018 3:30 pm

Tom Halla

Felix, what you are not taking into account is there is a defense treaty between Australia and the US.

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May 17, 2018 3:36 pm

Felix

Tom,
I do take that into account, with growing US isolationism.
Neither the 1951 ANZUS Treaty nor the 1954 SEATO Treaty requires the US to come to the aid of Oz if attacked, unlike the NATO Treaty. The treaties with Oz state rather that “each of the parties recognizes that an armed attack in the Pacific Area on any of the Parties would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional processes”.
The NATO Treaty by contrast states that “the Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all; and each of them will assist the attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force”.
Besides which, by 2025-30, the US might not even be able to come to Oz’ aid without risk of its own regional defeat. China’s anti-carrier ballistic missiles are a threat to which we don’t yet have an adequate response. Our latest Standard SAMs could probably handle them, but we’d need greatly to increase our anti-missile destroyers to intercept all of them. We can’t afford a navy that big.
Besides which are all the usual swarms of antiship cruise missiles and torpedoes.
It’s possible that some US brigade sets of equipment are stored in Oz, so that we’d only have to fly in personnel to man them, but I can’t comment upon that conjecture. But even if so, the whole US Army (ten active divisions) would have its hands full against 30 Chinese division-equivalents.

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May 17, 2018 3:48 pm

Tom Halla

It depends on who the US President was at the time. Perhaps Jimmy Carter could have found a rationale for inaction, but no other US presidents in my lifetime would not threaten a general war with the PRC if they attempted to invade Australia.

While increasingly isolationist Americans might not support overt and direct combat aid to an invaded Australia, at least we might surreptitiously send perhaps a third of our Pacific Fleet nuke attack subs to help sink troop transports and PLA (N) warships. That would be eight or nine SSNs.
The USN has 53 attack subs in commission, of which maybe 27 are in the Pacific Fleet. They aren’t all deployable all the time.
China has around 60 nuclear and D-E attack subs in service, with more being built rapidly.

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May 17, 2018 4:28 pm

ironicman

‘Yet your government has disarmed the populace and gutted the armed forces.’
Gun amnesty is still very popular with the Australian electorate and our armed forces are more than adequate to defend us from Indonesian ambition.
Felix you are talking about something that won’t happen, our place in the new world order is secure and military conflict unnecessary.
The first wave of Chinese and Indian immigrants are flooding Australian cities and the indigenous population say the cities are full. The second wave is just gearing up to build a continental bullet train network and satellite cities throughout this large island, decentralisation with due diligence.
By 2050 I see a Chinese born, democratically elected PM who might be a Marxist. My crystal ball is a bit fuzzy on the detail.

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May 17, 2018 4:31 pm

Felix

Tom Halla May 17, 2018 at 6:38 pm
No American president would risk nuclear war with China to save Australia.
Ironicman,
Australia is essentially defenseless against China on its own. You’re right that it might be able to hold back Indonesia, but not China, without powerful allies. Indonesia has only about 270 million people, but growing at least five million per year.
You might be right that China won’t achieve its long-term dream of grabbing Australia, but not because of Australia’s own military might. It’s only hope is alliance with India and the USA. India’s armed forces are less than half those of China’s, although its Western-style Arjun tank is better than China’s Russian-style third generation armor. However there are only some 366 Arjuns. The rest of India’s tank force is Russian, with all the same weaknesses as China’s armor.
Australians might still like the fact that they are defenseless, unarmed serfs of a proto-Communist regime rather than free men and women, but they might yet wake up and smell the pàocài.
Just because you’ve finally ended your blatantly racist immigration laws and started letting in Asians doesn’t mean that China has suddenly stopped planning to take you over, kill your men and enslave your women.
But don’t count on me or my kinfolk to save you again, as we did in WWII. China is about 20 times the threat that Japan was in 1941.

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May 17, 2018 6:58 pm

Tom Halla

Felix–“no American president would risk a nuclear war to save Australia”? As I wrote, perhaps Carter, but even Peanut eventually got off his pious butt and tried to do something about Iran. You do seem to distrust and underestimate Americans. Who was it who wrote, Americans will do the right thing, after trying everything else?

WXcycles May 17, 2018 at 7:15 pm
Only a bot would call me a bot.
I’m a human veteran of four wars in Asia.

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May 17, 2018 7:19 pm

Felix

And the son of a US Marine aviator who helped save Australia from the tender mercies of Japanese occupation in 1942-45.

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May 17, 2018 7:27 pm

ironicman

‘But don’t count on me or my kinfolk to save you again, as we did in WWII.’
Good, I’ll pass it on.
Xi Jinping is the supreme leader of China and is on record as saying war is a waste of resources and should only be used as a last resort in self defence.
Its not generally known that he spent seven years in the countryside of Shaanxi province, doing hard labour during the Cultural Revolution.
“I did everything, blazing the trail, seeding, herding, carrying manure … I barely took a rest.” Imagine him walking along a five kilometre mountainous road carrying 100kg of wheat on one shoulder.
The Prince comes in peace, Australia needs to recognise that Beijing only wants to take over the world commercially, not militarily.

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May 17, 2018 7:36 pm

Felix

ironicman May 17, 2018 at 7:36 pm
I’m familiar with Xi’s history. Despite his family’s suffering during the Cultural Revolution, he now wants to revive Maoism, since he’s in control.
Apparently it has escaped your notice that China is building artificial islands in the SCS and vastly building up its armed forces. Why, do you suppose, if all it’s interested in is economic power? Why is it spending hundreds of billions per year on its military, money which could be better invested in its civilian economy? Why does it maintain the largest armed force on Earth?
Are you really willing to bet your life and freedom on Xi’s imagined pacifism?
Tom,
My opinion of Americans is so high that I’ve repeatedly risked my life to do as ordered by their government, however stupid and mistaken it has so often been since 1969, when I swore an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. Unfortunately, those enemies have often been in the federal government.
Much as we share in common with Australia, it is no longer worthy of the blood of Americans, since it won’t pay to defend itself. Oz and the Kiwis produced great soldiers for WWI and WWII and even in VN. I served with brave, competent Australians and New Zealanders in Iraq and Afghanistan as well. I carried an Austeyr rather than the PoS M4 in Afghanistan. But today’s Oz soldiers are no longer representative of the general population, where they are so often despised.
We owe Australia nothing. They owe us. It’s not a matter of US national interest who controls the resources of Australia. Even if China kept them off world markets, it’s no skin off our nose.
Oz might as well be Commie.

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May 17, 2018 7:52 pm

WXcycles

@ Felix
Which doesn’t make you any less of a chronic jack@ss felix. If you think we owe you something or should fawn after the likes of you, think again.

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May 17, 2018 9:05 pm

Felix

WX,
Which just reinforces what the polls I cited found.
My mom’s generation of Australians were grateful to the US for saving them from Japanese domination, but how soon they forget. Already by the Korean War, Oz Communists were already falsely accusing us of using biological warfare against the noble North Koreans.
Your ilk is why Australia is doomed to be dominated by China. Don’t expect Americans yet again to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of our youth and hundreds of billions in treasure to pull your chestnuts out to the fire, in return for nothing but ingratitude and hatred.

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May 17, 2018 9:10 pm

Felix

That was then. This is now.
The IJN proposed invading Australia, but the Imperial Japanese Army opposed the operation, given that it’s hands were full on the Asian continent.
China suffers no such restrictions, and enjoys, as noted, at least 20 times the effective strength of Japan in 1942.
But keep whistling past the graveyard and hating your American saviors. My Australian kinfolk would find your attitude disgusting.

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May 17, 2018 9:16 pm

Felix

An indication of how debased Oz has become, even under a supposedly right of center government:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marise_Payne
Your Defence Minister was previously Human Services Minister.
Disgusting.
Even though he was a Labourite, I was friends with Kim Beazley at Oxford. Somehow neither he nor his dad managed ever to serve in uniform, yet the elder KB’s career suffered for his pro-American stance, and the younger’s from his mismanagement of the submarine upgrade program while Defence Minister, among other real or perceived failings which kept him from ever being PM.

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May 17, 2018 9:41 pm

Felix

I just want 21st century Australians to wake up, smell their billy boiling and realize in what desperate peril they are, with a tiny population on a vast, resource-rich continent.
And that they can’t count on the US, India or anyone else to bail them out. Again.
Their hardened ancestors were preadapted for the world wars. Today’s decadent softies, not so much.
My mom’s dad went from shooting kangaroos for practically nothing to shooting Turks and Germans for quite a bit more, and was glad of it, despite the loss of so many good mates.

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May 17, 2018 9:51 pm

WXcycles

aww, you’re so cute when you troll.

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May 17, 2018 11:51 pm

Felix

WXcycles May 17, 2018 at 11:51 pm
Only in your disturbed alternative universe is telling the truth trolling.
It’s that divorcement from reality that threatens Oz with decline, death and destruction.
Don’t count on America to bail you out again.

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May 17, 2018 11:55 pm

Felix

Everyone might be tired of this thread, so I’ll make my last comment on it, in hopes that Australia wakes up to its mortal peril.
Few cities in the world are as vulnerable to siege as Melbourne and Sydney. Dunno about Canberra, Brisbane, Darwin, Adelaide, Perth, etc. But I am familiar with the water systems of the two biggest metro areas. During the 1998 Sydney water crisis, my aged aunt came to the US to visit her kids.
Eighty percent of Sydney’s water comes from a single dam. Some of the rest comes from a desalinization plant also readily captured or blown up. In Melbourne, it’s over 60% from just one reservoir. Seize and hold the catchment areas for those cities’ water supplies, and they’d have to surrender in less than a week. That’s how easy it would be for China to capture more than ten million of Australia’s almost 25 million inhabitants. Capturing the other big cities could probably be done with similar facility.
‘Nuff said.

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May 18, 2018 11:54 am

OweninGA

ironicman,
I hope you are being ironic or sarcastic in that statement. It is a classic sovereign-debt influence peddling scheme. It seeks to entice nations to sign up for the loans with a smiling face while on the back-end they will demand political compliance with their international wishes.
It’s the classic case of the pusher giving away product to addict the junkies and lead them around on a string. Soft slavery is still slavery. Venezuela is starting to feel that pinch and they aren’t even that much on the hook.

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May 16, 2018 6:32 am

ironicman

Laissez faire capitalism is a thing of the past.
A short while ago the PM had to tell the multinationals exporting our gas to give us some at a reasonable price. This remarkable intervention by an old banker has brought energy prices down for the Australian consumer.

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May 16, 2018 2:28 pm

HotScot

ironicman
Laissez faire capitalism may be a thing of the past, but it’s also a thing of the future.
socialism is an artificial political construct. Man evolved through free trade. marxism was imagineered by a champagne quaffing, upper class liberal, and has spread like a cancer.
Free trade has it’s problems, sure, some of them violent, but Mao and Stalin turned on their own people in the quest for the marxist idyll of equality, and massacred two million innocent civilians to achieve it, but still didn’t.
But that’s a spit in the ocean compared to the next 30 years when two hundred million people in developing countries are predicted to die from poverty, promoted by western socialism denying them access to the funds to build fossil fuelled power stations.
Were climate change the real issue, free market Capitalism would adapt to change, as it always has.
Many of Australia’s problems are caused by champagne socialists who have an easy life, and deem to impose perverted values on others, simply to maintain their own selfish lifestyles.
I have been a climate alarmist, I have been a socialist, I have been rich, and I have been poor but the one thing I recognise as an indisputable truth is that nothing socialism claims to offer is possible without Capitalism.
Our armed forces, emergency services, health services, welfare systems, technology or, indeed, governments themselves, could not exist without the means to pay for them, which is derived from the free market economy.
And you can be certain that when a Capitalist shits in his own nest, he’ll be kicked out.
socialism employs someone to clean up the mess, at everyone else’s expense, whilst counselling the offender for being so thoughtless, at everyone else’s expense, no matter how many times he does it.

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May 16, 2018 5:04 pm

ironicman

Scot lets not get off on the wrong foot, most of the politicians in Australia are pseudo Marxists.
‘I recognise as an indisputable truth is that nothing socialism claims to offer is possible without Capitalism.’
Agreed, which is why this hybrid model socialism with Chinese characteristics is so appealing, China is becoming a typical mixed economy.
A sad byproduct is that the great leader kicked the property speculators out, because they had created a property bubble, and now they are ruining Australian cities with their atrocious architecture.

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May 16, 2018 9:16 pm

ironicman

‘Capitalism already has a human face.’
Yeah and its not pretty, the GFC was caused by greedy Americans.

Well done Viv…a very sobering tale. Hopefully sanity will prevail eventually.
You’re so right that others to the north are eyeing us up.
Future generations will surely look back on this phase in western civilisation (?) with disbelief.

Future generations will be Muslim and they will look back at you and your culture and spit on it.

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May 16, 2018 3:03 am

ironicman

Does this have anything to do with Sharia Law? Or perhaps you think the concept of large families is still fashionable.

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May 16, 2018 6:01 am

Khwarizmi

Once upon a time the people of Australia owned public utilities that were considered vital to the function of a modern society, including electricity, gas, & water. Then along came some globalist predators to buy up our politicians, pressing them to make us believe, with the invisible hand of a prepared script, that a “free market” would provide us with cheaper and better services due to competition. When the people overwhelmingly replied, “No!,” our treasonous politicians went ahead with the plan anyway, essentially eliminating our sovereignty over vital infrastructure.
So now we have a situation in which a French company can permanently close power plants in Australia to drive up electricity prices on a profit-seeking whim, being the same strategy Enron used, albeit intermittently, to steal from “Grandma Millie” in California.
Vic is being way too polite in calling this an act of “political vandalism.” The correct French word is “sabotage.”
=====================
Hazelwood power station closure will send Victorian power bills soaring
Herald Sun, Oct 2016
=====================
Hazelwood station shutdown to lift power bills 20pc
The Australian, March 30, 2017
=====================
Victorian power bills soar after Hazelwood coal plant closure
-Sydney Morning Herald, March 28, 2018
[…]
With fewer than six months to prepare for the demise of the brown coal-fired plant in the Latrobe Valley, authorities had to scramble to minimise the blow from the loss of one-fifth of the state’s generation capacity.
Average household power bills were up almost 16 per cent this financial year, from a year earlier, to $1275, the Australian Energy Markets Commission said.
[…] Wholesale prices reacted more violently to the decision by French-owned Engie’s snap decision to pull the plug on the 1600 megawatt-sized Hazelwood, rising to historic highs.
=====================

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May 16, 2018 2:04 am

MarkW

It has nothing to do with brain dead environmental policies and regulations.
It’s all the fault of evil capitalists.

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May 16, 2018 7:41 am

DonM

There has got to be other smart people (like you) in Victoria that could coordinate a purchase the Hazelwood station, to run it as a non-profit to keep the power bills down.
You get the project half way there and I will kick in $10,000 ….

Khwarizmi,
Nailed it. Canberra, State Govs, ABC, et al.were just the facilitators of exploitation and lie formulations to enable and speed it along.
Anyone looking for emergant real solutions from those vectors of diseasez is totally kidding themselves. The only thing we ever get from them is another cup of scented poison.

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May 17, 2018 7:32 pm

ozspeaksup

we have also got sfa fuel processing left and a very limited storage amt for petrol or diesel
less than 3 weeks at normal use and 40ish days on rationing
refinerys closed down and land flogged off by SA govt for housing estates.
500mil to blow on the bloody reef but naff all for stuff we really need
suckered for billions wasted on the nofly lemon pos f(d)35s while we sell whats left of decent planes to bloody canada. wtf? moment
turdball was a goldbags sux minion and i suspect he still is and selling us all down the river
btw we did NOT elect this mongrel
he and the termite bishop did the dirty on TA

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May 16, 2018 2:15 am

HotScot

ozspeaksup
Careful no one accuses you of sitting on the fence.
🤣
Good for you mate, tell it like it is.

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May 16, 2018 2:32 am

Warren Blair

ozspeaksup is spot on!

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May 16, 2018 4:34 am

John harmsworth

“bloody Canada” here. I can’t believe we didn’t overpay for something that was useful. I can’t even believe we paid a fair price for something that wasn’t useful. Our government is at least as dumb as yours!

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May 16, 2018 2:10 pm

Patrick MJD

Turncoat was elected, by his people in his constituency. No-one elects a PM, only MP’s. But I get your frustration. We have been witness to a political pantomime for the last 10 years or so where the various parties in Govn’t shuffle MP’s, portfolios and seats while the country burns.

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May 16, 2018 7:28 pm

GREY LENSMAN

Lowest population density but highest property prices
Largest agriculture per capita but highest food prices
Massive energy reserves but highest electricity prices
Massive fish reserves but most expensive fish
Are there any Australians left?

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May 16, 2018 3:19 am

RobR

Except for NZ where most stuff is more expensive than it is in Oz (Australia).

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May 16, 2018 4:23 am

Patrick MJD

Plus 15% GST!

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May 16, 2018 7:29 pm

John harmsworth

What’s their dry dirt going for these days? Lol!

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May 16, 2018 2:11 pm

John harmsworth

We could send you some snow from Canada to melt down and irrigate with. We’ll just dump it in the Pacific and you can take out as much as you need at your end and send us a cheque!

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May 16, 2018 2:12 pm

ColA

John, TOO expensive for Aussies, direct that question to any Chinese visitor!

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May 16, 2018 3:52 pm

Felix

Most plentiful and cheapest marsupials? With the exception of possums, of course.

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May 16, 2018 2:22 pm

ROBERT CIRCLE

With all the coal plants being built in asia and elsewhere, maybe the Aussies will have enough money to be able to afford their green energy.

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May 16, 2018 5:02 am

Paul Nevins

I wonder about the numbers used at the start. 20% nuclear? In Japan? I’ve seen 80% used in the past. And what does the tsunami have to do with it? Would any type of generating plant have faired as well as Japan’s nukes? 47 nuclear power plants were shut down by the event all but a couple of very old ones were back available to provide power as soon as they could restring the wires.

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May 16, 2018 6:21 am

Sandyb

Bears repeating: What historians will definitely wonder about in future centuries is how deeply flawed logic, obscured by shrewd and unrelenting propaganda, actually enabled a coalition of powerful special interests to convince nearly everyone in the world that CO2 from human industry was a dangerous, planet-destroying toxin. It will be remembered as the greatest mass delusion in the history of the world – that CO2, the life of plants, was considered for a time to be a deadly poison.
Richard Lindzen

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May 16, 2018 6:37 am

Tom Halla

I was from California, and Australia seems to be in the same sort of political death spiral.

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May 16, 2018 6:47 am

JimG1

Liberalism causes economic death spirals. And since global warming has worked so well in helping to elect liberals, why would they not continue to promote the lie? All of their policies feel so good and are nonsensical. It’s the educational system and mass media which are at fault, primarily.

Don’t recall who said this: To err is human, but to REALLY screw things up requires government.
This problem arises when people who have considerable political clout and so-called “good” ideas go straight to govt to implement them. They do so without understanding or caring about the downside or consequences of their actions. And when they don’t, neither does govt. Thinking at an ideological (Green) level instead of one involving facts, logic and reasoning will usually lead to this. Think Spock from Star Trek.
Another cliche that comes to mind here is: The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

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May 16, 2018 11:46 am

Steve Zell

[QUOTE FROM ARTICLE]”Despite having huge resources of coal and uranium, Australia has no nuclear powered electricity and has not built a significant coal-fired power station since Kogan Creek was opened eleven years ago.”
SHHHH! Don’t let Hillary Clinton know about this–she’ll take a few million rubles from Putin and send the uranium to Russia! Time to build some nuclear power plants in Australia!

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May 16, 2018 2:45 pm

Felix

It’s also an ideal continent geologically and geographically for nuclear power. Stable with lots of open space. Cooling water however might have to come from the ocean.

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May 16, 2018 2:47 pm

WXcycles

Khwarizmi
” …Americans, with all their anti-social brainwashing, have been rendered incapable of seeing the truth: Socialist electricity worked much better than the predatory capitalist model that was foisted on us against the wishes of the people. …”
—-
I could not agree more on that point, the prior public-owned electrical generation and supply was vastly better for Australians, than this DISGUSTING AMERICANISATION of the same.
Every time we’ve followed the USA’s idiotic privatisation model (extremist ideology), for essential services provision, it has been an appalling economic, financial and pubic policy DESASTER—without end!
We should have stuck with what we wete doing so well, and never have listened to the duplicitous clowns from Uncle Sam land.
They’ve done more damage to us than China perhaos ever will. We’re en-garde against China now, but we should have been en-garde against the stupidity and endless criminal corruption of extremist American privatisation idrology and its associated political nonsense and systemic corruption.
And it was all foreseeable.
Felix’s bankrupt condescending USA imperialism mentality is just a feeble condensation of that disreputable nonsense in 2018.
Completely useless counterproductive rubbish you sprout, Felix.

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May 17, 2018 8:08 pm

Khwarizmi

Sydney Morning Herald article yesterday on price gougeing by foreign predators:https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/fears-of-400-million-a-year-power-price-gouge-triggers-probe-20180514-p4zf7n.html
Americans, with all their anti-social brainwashing, have been rendered incapable of seeing the truth: Socialist electricity worked much better than the predatory capitalist model that was foisted on us against the wishes of the people.
Take note of what Australians with memories longer than the latest new cycle think of the situation.
==================================
Monkey
but…but….they told us privatisation/competition would bring the prices down.
Cyber Robin Hood
Those wonderful days before privatistion are sorely missed.
Though not perfect but price gouging for greater profit as against better customer service and fair pricing benefits those providers some of them owned overseas. Energy is an essential service and should not be in the hands of foreign Companies.
won’t get fooled again
Every time a government owned service or enterprise is sold to the “more efficient” private industry (think electricity, Medibank, CBA bank etc) the following absolutes happen:
1. CEO’s now in charge of a private business award themselves obscene salaries;
2. Actual workers who provide the service are made redundant to provide bonuses for #1;
3. The quality of the service declines because of #2; and finally,
4. The cost of the service increases regularly to support #1.
Every time.
Len T
At least State owned agencies collect funds for the State treasury for expenditure within the State. Privatised companies hike prices to make more profits for shareholders and CEOs remuneration, profits which mostly go overseas and tax minimised.
Sam Lowry
Privatisation, what could possibly go wrong?
Darcy
Ah yes. The wonders of the Liberal Party Agenda of privatisation for their corporate mates.
iany
Privatization has been a disaster,it is being run by offshore companies with the sole purpose of maximizing profits ,not providing a service,what were our politicians thinking?
Claudio Belvedere
Thanks to jeff kennet
Mixxa
Kennett and Stockdale.
Nunya Business
Domestic Eletctricity and Gas supply is a national Security issue that the neoliberals think should be left up to the magical “free market”.
Honestly these bozos couldn’t care less about you and me.
Exponential
The profits made from poles and wires distribution in Queensland still help fund other services provided by the Qld state government.
The last LNP Newman/Nicholls government spent $10’s millions on a marketing campaign to get us Queenslanders to accept privatisation of our distribution businesses. We responded by voting them out.
russ
Privatisation is a joke, and the lack of meaningful regulation is shameful.Why our governments serve us the public up to the corporate wolves on a platter is beyond me. I guess it’s because the politicians have been captured by industry and vested interests, and after their days in politics they’re looking for fat cheque.
Guru
It is great to see that privatisation really works well in Australia. Energy providers, education providers. It has been a real success…. Not!
Brave New World
In theory privatisation may work thanks to competition, but that hardly applies to a monopoly market. The only competition the network monopolies has are those residents who can afford to live off the grid.
Les
a liberal, Kennett started the rot
and he believed them when they said privatisation would cause prices to go down dramatically (you know.. coz al govt enterprises are inefficient.) Monash would be rolling in his grave as the SECv was one of the most efficient energy suppliers and retailers in the world at the time Kennett stepped up and ruined the party
keshipearls
Yet another example of the costly disaster the liberals created privatizing electricity.
I want a refund
Gary
I remember when ‘privatisation’ was sold to Australians on the basis it would save us all money. At the time, many voices said the actual result would be that consumers would be held to ransom by higher prices feeding sky high profits. Looks like these naysayers were correct.
Happy Budgie
Yep – energy in Australia has been going great since the Liberal Party privatized it.
Aussie Battler
Who on the street is really surprised? Privatisation of publicly owned assets and infrastructure has not worked.
Culprit
John Monash turned all the single power companies into one (SEC), as he acknowledged that the people were being ripped off. In comes the LNP and sells the SEC off to make all these single power companies who are simply ripping the people off. The State cannot do anything about it. No wonder the LNP refuse to acknowledge John Monash in anyway and now use his name under some falsehood is farcical. Privatisation was going to make competition and give the people cheaper prices. All it has done is removed income and control from the State and given all the power to the plethora of overseas companies to suck the money out of the State and Country. Amazingly these private companies do not even have spend their own money on preventative maintenance, they wait till it breaks and then fix it. Well done Jeff.
cos1
This is fantastic news – or at least it could be. It could mean that the government would have a pretext to find a way to bring this vital infrastructure back under state control so that it can again become a service to the Australian people and a facilitative infrastructure for the Australian economy, rather than a parasitic industry that is bleeding consumers dry, damaging our international competitiveness and draining money which could go into other sectors of the economy (ie, retail).
Australia isn’t a democracy – it’s a corporate brothel for global predators.

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May 16, 2018 5:26 pm

Felix

During the mining boom, it was paradise for the world’s whores.

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May 16, 2018 5:29 pm

Khwarizmi

No – the mining boom was more like Jeffrey Epstein’s “Orgy Island” – paradise for the predators, but not for the captive sex slaves.
e.g:
=============
“A massive Chinese company that received a $25 million [Australian] government grant to turn Latrobe Valley brown coal into briquettes is looking at selling the resource back to Victoria’s power plants.https://www.smh.com.au/environment/chinese-company-may-sell-latrobe-valley-brown-coal-briquettes-locally-20140901-10b2un.html
==========
The sale of our public utilities against the wishes of the people is no different, with an unwilling Australian public pimped out to insatiable foreign predators.
.
Treason doth ever prosper when none dare call it that.
Of course, anyone who complains about the situation must be “commies.”

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May 16, 2018 8:21 pm

Felix

As far from captive as possible. They came and went of their own free will from all over the world, or the capitalist part of it which allows free movement of people.

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May 16, 2018 8:32 pm

Khwarizmi

Should the people of Australia move to another country if their treasonous anti-democratic globalist dictators ignore their wishes?
Is that how the “free movement of people” thing works when your country is sold out from under your feet?
Was Trump elected on a “free movement of people” platform? Is that what American voters want?

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May 16, 2018 9:43 pm

Felix

Khwarizmi,
People are free to move to whatever country wants them. They aren’t free to enter countries which don’t want them.
As should be obvious.
When China conquers Australia, I suspect that some 20 million of its pitifully few 24 million people will want to move. Who will take them in?

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May 17, 2018 12:06 am

Khwarizmi

Your contempt toward Australians, our democratic wishes, our sovereignty, and our standard of living, is more than evident from your malevolent posturing today.
“People are free to move to whatever country wants them. They aren’t free to enter countries which don’t want them. As should be obvious.”
quote:
=============
California Proposition 187 (also known as the Save Our State (SOS) initiative) was a 1994 ballot initiative toestablish a state-run citizenship screening system
andprohibit illegal aliens from using non-emergency health care, public education, and other services in the State of California.
Voters passed the proposed law at a referendum on November 8, 1994. The law was challenged in a legal suit and found unconstitutional by a federal district court. In 1999, Governor Gray Davis halted state appeals of this ruling.
[…]
In 1994, California had an estimated 1.3 million illegal immigrants, which included approximately 308,000 children. Residents were increasingly concerned about the costs of providing services to the families of illegal immigrants.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_187
=============
And so the people of California were forced, against the wishes of the voting majority, to continue paying Zakat for the education and welfare of 1.3 million people who moved, illegally, to a country that didn’t want them. “As should be obvious.”

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May 17, 2018 3:22 am

Jon jewett

I started going to sea in the merchant marine in 1966. Back then the last of American shipping companies were pulling out of Austrailia. The longshoremen’s union was too unpredictable and the shipping companies couldn’t keep a schedule. Farrell lines had a trade taking frozen beef from Australia to these United States. To support the ranchers, that pathetic fool Jimmy Carter banned beef imports. So ended Farrel lines and any trade to Australia. Doesn’t appear that the Australians have learned Jack about economics? And they don’t even want to meet him.

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May 16, 2018 6:11 pm

Felix

The Communist who organized American longshoreman was an Aussie. Strangely enough, he ended up supporting Nixon, as the Vietnam War helped dockers. He considered merging the ILWU with the Teamsters, who were also flirting with Nixon.
Way too many Commies in Oz, as was shown by their propaganda lies during the Korean War.

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May 16, 2018 6:16 pm

Felix

Harry Bridges. Forgot to mention his name. I met him in 1972.

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May 16, 2018 6:17 pm

Khwarizmi

The Korean war was a long time ago, the boring TV series MASH ran much longer than the actual war, and was already very stale when it was broadcast repeatedly on Australian TV.
We soak up your culture, no matter how horrible it is, and we join in every war that you wage against impoverished people all over the world, no matter how outrageous and transparent the lies used to justify it,.
I’m deeply moved by your display of appreciation for Australia’s unflinching loyalty to the USA, Felix.
I was born in Australia (9th generation), I’ve lived here my entire life, and I haven’t met a real “commie” since the late 70’s – and she was a French import.
There are, to quantify the matter in scientific terms, “way too many” brainwashed people in the U.S. proudly exhibiting their ignorance about the political demographics of other nations.

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May 16, 2018 9:37 pm

ripshin

Khwarizmi (wow, that’s really hard for this American to type!)

There are, to quantify the matter in scientific terms, “way too many” brainwashed people in the U.S. proudly exhibiting their ignorance about the political demographics of other nations.

I’m always confused by comments such as yours. Except perhaps for a tiny, tiny number of people, most Americans are blissfully un-opinionated about “political demographics of other nations”. Sure we might, for example, hear about how the French think they’re better than us, and so have an emotional response to that. We may observe this or that country implementing such-and-such a policy and think they’re crazy, or, worse yet, damn socialists! But mostly, we’re too busy going to work, taking kids to sports, mowing our lawns, and fighting about what CNN or FoxNews says about our own country, to be bothered to even THINK about what you or your fellow citizens believe.
As for your disparaging and arrogant remarks regarding American wars against “impoverished people all over the world,” this is the type of comment that is seriously insulting. Your direct implication by such a statement is a slap in the face of the sacrifices that Americans have repeatedly made to assist in world matters that are of little import to us personally. That you actually believe such a disgusting opinion is a testament to your own ignorance and deliberate and willful refusal to understand the truth. Fortunately for Australia, and unlike Felix, whose service to the U.S. makes him deserving of my utmost respect, I don’t think the U.S. will make future geopolitical decisions regarding Australia based on feeling of “gratitude” or “ingratitude” by its citizens.
Finally, Felix’s comments are clearly meant as “voice crying [out] in the wilderness”. He’s playing Demosthenes to your deaf Athens…and yet you condemn him. Where else have we seen this before? Oh, that’s right. It’s different this time… (insert rolleyes emoji here)
But…as we say here, “You do you.”
rip

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May 21, 2018 9:32 am

Felix

The Korean War is still very much with us, and Australian Communists sided with the mass murderous Kim regime against freedom, liberty and humanity.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Burchett#Posthumous_revelations
The same Communists then sided with the mass murderous Vietnamese Communists against the same forces of freedom.
But always glad to connect with a fellow 9th generation Australian. Actually however, I’m more like a 2000th generation Australian in my case, as I enjoy some boomerang in the woodpile on my mom’s side as well as bow and arrow on my dad’s.
Feel free to hate America as much as you want, but don’t count on us to pull your fat out of the fire in this century as we did in the last, when the dominant Asian military power decides yet again to take you over.

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May 18, 2018 12:27 am

Warren Blair

Australian Federal Government pathological liars . . .
“Affordability
Household electricity prices as at June 2017 have more than doubled over the past decade. Since 2007, this has been driven by network costs and, most recently, generation costs due to high gas prices.”
No mention of the primary culprit ‘renewables’ extortion funded by coal putting much base-load coal out of business raising prices for all classes of electricity generation.https://www.energy.gov.au/government-priorities/better-energy-future-australia

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May 16, 2018 9:14 pm

ironicman

Warren its my understanding energy prices are coming down because the PM interfered with the free market, demanding the gas barons give us a bit of slack.
Typical pseudo Marxist behaviour, too little too late methinks.

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May 18, 2018 12:01 am

paqyfelyc

Australia has up and down, but it is rich, and get richer. Just like Germany.
Both nation for sure could make a better use of their wealth than “Energiewende” and war against “carbon”, but they for sure can afford to be foolish.
And don’t underestimate politicians (and, ultimately, voters): if they dropped this green folly, they for sure would switch, not to reasonable, but some just-as-foolish different policy.

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May 17, 2018 7:30 am

WXcycles

You could not be more wrong.
Australia (much like China) appears to be ‘rich’ via spending all of tomorrows’ income, today, with suicidal levels if debt-growth in every sector. Take the credit away and Australia’s a glorified has-been, a hobo with serious meth addiction issues. Which it remains in total denial about.
‘Rich countries’ is a fantasy.

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May 17, 2018 7:43 pm

ironicman

Beijing is investing in the future with massive infrastructure to unite the people of the world, while Morrison is doing his level best to bring in a balanced budget within a few years.
Apples and pears.
Australia is on the brink of a cultural and economic revolution, which you might find destabilising.

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May 18, 2018 12:17 am

WXcycles

Are you saying no one on earth could trade with China, prior to this? I’m pretty sure they could, and did.
Morrison and Turnbull will be in the dustbin next year, if not sooner, the its extreme greenie labor ‘budgets.
And even if Norrison, by some unimaginable miricle did see out two more terms, and priduced a surplus, it will be a mimlnimum of 30 years, and or high inflation for 10 years to pay down the Federal debt.
Then the States … hahahahaglhaaa …. yeah, forget it, they’re never paying that back.
Then local govt …. same … they are just running down infrastructure, trying to avoid raising rates, they know the locals don’t have disposable income, so that won’t be paid back, just the interest, if that.
Private households are debt to the eyeballs.
Business is the same.
Banking FIRE sector corrupt and full of crooks.
Lib-Nats will get smashed for resisting banking royal commission duscovering widespread corruption.
But you think the credit will continue because morrison promises to balance the books, in 2022, like Swann did in 2014?
Not credible.
Why that would be “destabilising” for me is a mystery.
Consider where global markets are actually positioned right now and the likelihood of a stable silk belt to a sow’s ear.https://www.hussmanfunds.com/comment/mc180508/
Stability? Ok.

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May 18, 2018 1:09 am

ironicman

‘…. it will be a mimlnimum of 30 years, and or high inflation for 10 years to pay down the Federal debt.’
Or we could have mass immigration and full employment supported by the development of new infrastructure. The mining boom would be on again and huge tax receipts for government.
‘Why that would be “destabilising” for me is a mystery.’
In the sense that Australians are used to evolutionary change and a revolution may be overwhelming.

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May 18, 2018 3:09 am

WXcycles

We have mass immigration for the past 15 years, it didn’t fix anything, just the reverse.
As for the alegedlt over minning boom, it was a minning INVESTMENT boom that ended, i.e. to build massive mines and infrastructure to cover the next 25 years.
The minning bit, the part that pays back investments, and then makes a profit, is happening now and for the next 20 years, or so.
We almost have full employment now, the number was 5.6% released this week, so none of what you suggest as the answers will make a diiference to the trajectory delineated by unrepayable crushing debts n every sector, over the next 20 years.
Stagflation at best, after another financial crisis and aftermath, plus its horrible politics.
What I see is a lot more suicides, a lot more legal and illegal drug addiction, and demolished families and relationships, and the ongoing fractionation and polarisation of the ‘community’, and a greatbdeal more demented propagandising and talk of doom and gloom.
Personally I’m adjusted to the trajectory we’re on, and the dynamics we’re entrained in, I feel no need or imperative to try or to pretend it’s controllable, any more than the climate is.
Leadership is a joke in this country, and in all others to, even the totalitarians. Yes, they can shunt in a direction, if they use enough violence, but it will alter nothing much, for thd good, just more for fewer people once more.
Whatever, that’s what occurs, no matter how much you p|ss into the hurricane.
When we’re born we’re not here to try and control life, we have been duped into thinking, hoping, that control is not only possible, but routine.
Ha, yeah, nope, but just don’t look too closely at the illusion of control and solutions.

The biggest electrical power Bitcoin bandits are in China, taking advantage of unused hydropower from the giant dams erected there in recent decades, which caused worldwide copper robbery thanks to price spikes.

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May 18, 2018 12:00 am

ironicman

Yeah but Beijing told them to clear out because they were draining the system. At first banished to Hong Kong and from there the free radicals have gone in search of energy.
Iceland has been popular, but the Hunter valley ticks all the right boxes.

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May 18, 2018 12:23 am

Felix

The wandering Bitcoin miners will only stop wandering when the price of Bitcoins falls below $400, ie 1/20 of its still inflated levels and 1/50 of its highs.

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